entry created: Wednesday 12 April 2006, 5:51am (NZ time) latest entry  |  archive  |  about  |  contact  |  guestbook

Location:  Grenoble, France Local time:  Tuesday, 7:50pm Music:   No job yet. A few hopefuls, but nothing concrete. The busking is actually going rather well though, and last Saturday I made a surprising amount of money, plus scored a gig at a city bar for this coming Friday night. I've played squash, played the guitar, started a web site for a friend in the UK, and visited the world's only authentic manufacturer of Chartreuse - a famous herbal French liqueur still produced by Carthusian monks from a formula dating back to 1605 and containing 130 herbs and spices. Otherwise I don't have much else to report for now. The postcard shot of Grenoble, which you'll find in most tourist stores here. Those little bubble-things are the gondolas that take tourists across the Isere River from the central-city and up to La Bastille. Looking across the river as they make their way to the top of the mountain. The city is nestles between some rather high mountains, making it a particularly windless, hot, and smoggy spot in the middle of summer. I stand on the corner, in the bottom-left of the shot, when I go busking. To the right is a large square where hundreds of people sit and eat during a Saturday afternoon. The scene outside my window a hundred times a day - the city's electric trams silently gliding by and across the river. Most of you are probably aware of the protests that have been taking place throughout France recently, over youth employment contracts (the 'CPE'). The sign being held up here has the names of the two biggest culprits - Villepin, France's Prime Minister; and Sarkozy, the Interior Minister. Thousands of people gathered in a city square in Grenoble. Some protesters walking through the streets, dressed as clowns and with various signs attached to their backs. The Police, very much hated in France, lining the streets during the protests. A country-side scene. < previous     next >